Pages

Friday, 20 June 2014

County gets £1.9m for pothole repairs after Cambridge MP takes issue to Westminster

Cambridgeshire is to get £1.9 million from the government to repair 36,000 potholes on the county’s roads just four months after Cambridge MP, Julian Huppert took the issue to Parliament.

The announcement has been welcomed by Julian who said the money would make a big difference to the network.

Julian led a Westminster debate on the issue and launched a campaign encouraging Cambridge residents to log broken and dangerous pavements on a website. He also took a petition to Cambridgeshire County Council calling for urgent repairs and a year-on-year maintenance programme.

“This money is extremely welcome to improve safety on our roads,” said Julian. “For far too long maintenance on the county’s roads and pavements has been seriously neglected resulting in many of them being in a poor state of repair.

“The Lib Dems achieved a highways review after many years of calling for one and we have seen some improvements but our roads, pavements and footpaths are still in a poor state. This money will be hugely helpful and I hope it will lead to the county council setting up a rolling programme of maintenance for the future.”

The money is part of £168 million being allocated across England through a Pothole Repair Fund.

Julian launched a Fix Our Pavements campaign with Paralympic hopeful, Claire Connon who took councillors on a wheelchair tour of the city last year giving them first-hand experience of how difficult it is to navigate cracked and broken pavements in a wheelchair.